Jakarta –
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imposition of martial law on annexed Ukraine showed his claims that people wanted to join Russia were lies. This was communicated by Ned Pice to reporters on Thursday local time.
“President Putin annexed these territories by claiming that there are people in these regions who are so desperately seeking protection from the Ukrainian state that they want to join Mother Russia,” said Ned Price.
“Now Putin, I believe, is proving his lies by declaring martial law,” he continued
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Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four regions of Ukraine recently annexed by Moscow.
The decision came when Ukraine said it shot down “several Russian rockets” on Kiev, on the third consecutive day of missile and drone strikes in the Ukrainian capital. The attacks on the Ukrainian capital were launched by Russia after a series of defeats on the battlefield for Moscow.
The imposition of martial law in Moscow-controlled areas also gives the authorities additional powers in the southern Russian region bordering Ukraine.
“We are working on very complex large-scale tasks to ensure security and protect Russia’s future,” Putin said.
Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin officials said they had withdrawn from the main city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday (19/10), as Ukrainian troops continued to advance into Russian-occupied territory since the beginning of the invasion.
Kherson was the first and only major city to fall to Moscow’s forces since the beginning of the February invasion. Reclaiming the city would be a major reward in a Ukrainian counterattack.
“The entire government moved to the eastern bank of the Dnieper today,” Vladimir Balance, the designated head of the Kherson region in Moscow, told Russian state television.
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